The Grill is the club most difficult of access in the world. To be
placed on its rolls distinguishes the new member as greatly as though
he had received a vacant Garter or had been caricatured in "Vanity
Fair."

Men who belong to the Grill Club never mention that fact. If you
were to ask one of them which clubs he frequents, he will name all
save that particular one. He is afraid if he told you he belonged to
the Grill, that it would sound like boasting.

The Grill Club dates back to the days when Shakespeare's Theatre
stood on the present site of the "Times" office. It has a golden
Grill which Charles the Second presented to the Club, and the
original manuscript of "Tom and Jerry in London," which was
bequeathed to it by Pierce Egan himself. The members, when they write
letters at the Club, still use sand to blot the ink.

The Grill enjoys the distinction of having blackballed, without
political prejudice, a Prime Minister of each party. At the same
sitting at which one of these fell, it elected, on account of his
brogue and his bulls, Quiller, Q. C., who was then a penniless
barrister.

When Paul Preval, the French artist who came to London by royal
command to paint a portrait of the Prince of Wales, was made an
honorary member—only foreigners may be honorary members—he said, as
he signed his first wine-card, "I would rather see my name on that
than on a picture in the Louvre."

At which Quiller remarked, "That is a devil of a compliment,
because the only men who can read their names in the Louvre to-day
have been dead fifty years."

On the night after the great fog of 1897 there were five members in
the Club, four of them busy with supper and one reading in front of
the fireplace. There is only one room to the Club, and one long
table. At the far end of the room the fire of the grill glows red,
and, when the fat falls, blazes into flame, and at the other there is
a broad bow-window of diamond panes, which looks down upon the
street. The four men at the table were strangers to each other, but
as they picked at the grilled bones, and sipped their Scotch and
soda, they conversed with such charming animation that a visitor to
the Club, which does not tolerate visitors, would have counted them
as friends of long acquaintance, certainly not as Englishmen who had
met for the first time, and without the form of an introduction. But
it is the etiquette and tradition of the Grill that whoever enters it
must speak with whomever he finds there. It is to enforce this rule
that there is but one long table, and whether there are twenty men at
it or two, the waiters, supporting the rule, will place them side by
side.

For this reason the four strangers at supper were seated together,
with the candles grouped about them, and the long length of the table
cutting a white path through the outer gloom.

"I repeat," said the gentleman with the black pearl stud, "that the
days for romantic adventure and deeds of foolish daring have passed,
and that the fault lies with ourselves. Voyages to the pole I do not
catalogue as adventures. That African explorer, young Chetney, who
turned up yesterday after he was supposed to have died in Uganda, did
nothing adventurous. He made maps and explored the sources of rivers.
He was in constant danger, but the presence of danger does not
constitute adventure. Were that so, the chemist who studies high
explosives, or who investigates deadly poisons, passes through
adventures daily. No, 'adventures are for the adventurous.' But one
no longer ventures. The spirit of it has died of inertia. We are
grown too practical, too just, above all, too sensible. In this room,
for instance, members of this Club have, at the sword's point,
disputed the proper scanning of one of Pope's couplets. Over so
weighty a matter as spilled Burgundy on a gentleman's cuff, ten men
fought across this table, each with his rapier in one hand and a
candle in the other. All ten were wounded. The question of the
spilled Burgundy concerned but two of them. The eight others engaged
because they were men of 'spirit.' They were, indeed, the first
gentlemen of the day. To-night, were you to spill Burgundy on my
cuff, were you even to insult me grossly, these gentlemen would not
consider it incumbent upon them to kill each other. They would
separate us, and to-morrow morning appear as witnesses against us at
Bow Street. We have here to-night, in the persons of Sir Andrew and
myself, an illustration of how the ways have changed."

The men around the table turned and glanced toward the gentleman in
front of the fireplace. He was an elderly and somewhat portly person,
with a kindly, wrinkled countenance, which wore continually a smile
of almost childish confidence and good-nature. It was a face which
the illustrated prints had made intimately familiar. He held a book
from him at arm's-length, as if to adjust his eyesight, and his brows
were knit with interest.

"Now, were this the eighteenth century," continued the gentleman
with the black pearl, "when Sir Andrew left the Club to-night I would
have him bound and gagged and thrown into a sedan chair. The watch
would not interfere, the passers-by would take to their heels, my
hired bullies and ruffians would convey him to some lonely spot where
we would guard him until morning. Nothing would come of it, except
added reputation to myself as a gentleman of adventurous spirit, and
possibly an essay in the 'Tatler' with stars for names, entitled, let
us say, 'The Budget and the Baronet.'"

"But to what end, sir?" inquired the youngest of the members. "And
why Sir Andrew, of all persons—why should you select him for this
adventure?"

The gentleman with the black pearl shrugged his shoulders.

"It would prevent him speaking in the House to-night. The Navy
Increase Bill," he added, gloomily. "It is a Government measure, and
Sir Andrew speaks for it. And so great is his influence and so large
his following that if he does"—the gentleman laughed ruefully—"if
he does, it will go through. Now, had I the spirit of our ancestors,"
he exclaimed, "I would bring chloroform from the nearest chemist's
and drug him in that chair. I would tumble his unconscious form into
a hansom-cab, and hold him prisoner until daylight. If I did, I would
save the British taxpayer the cost of five more battleships, many
millions of pounds."

The gentleman again turned, and surveyed the baronet with freshened
interest. The honorary member of the Grill, whose accent already had
betrayed him as an American, laughed softly.

"To look at him now," he said, "one would not guess he was deeply
concerned with the affairs of state."

The others nodded silently.

"He has not lifted his eyes from that book since we first entered,"
added the youngest member. "He surely cannot mean to speak to-night."

"Oh, yes, he will speak," muttered the one with the black pearl,
moodily. "During these last hours of the session the House sits late,
but when the Navy bill comes up on its third reading he will be in
his place—and he will pass it."

The fourth member, a stout and florid gentleman of a somewhat
sporting appearance, in a short smoking-jacket and black tie, sighed
enviously.

"Fancy one of us being as cool as that, if he knew he had to stand
up within an hour and rattle off a speech in Parliament. I'd be in a
devil of a funk myself. And yet he is as keen over that book he's
reading as though he had nothing before him until bedtime."

"Yes, see how eager he is," whispered the youngest member. "He does
not lift his eyes even now when he cuts the pages. It is probably an
Admiralty Report, or some other weighty work of statistics which
bears upon his speech."

The gentleman with the black pearl laughed morosely.

"The weighty work in which the eminent statesman is so deeply
engrossed," he said, "is called 'The Great Rand Robbery.' It is a
detective novel for sale at all bookstalls."

"It is not a taste, it is his vice," returned the gentleman with
the pearl stud. "It is his one dissipation. He is noted for it. You,
as a stranger, could hardly be expected to know of this idiosyncrasy.
Mr. Gladstone sought relaxation in the Greek poets, Sir Andrew finds
his in Gaboriau. Since I have been a member of Parliament, I have
never seen him in the library without a shilling shocker in his hands.
He brings them even into the sacred precincts of the House, and from
the Government benches reads them concealed inside his hat. Once
started on a tale of murder, robbery, and sudden death, nothing can
tear him from it, not even the call of the division-bell, nor of
hunger, nor the prayers of the party Whip. He gave up his country
house because when he journeyed to it in the train he would become so
absorbed in his detective-stories that he was invariably carried past
his station." The member of Parliament twisted his pearl stud
nervously, and bit at the edge of his mustache. "If it only were the
first pages of 'The Rand Robbery' that he were reading," he murmured
bitterly, "instead of the last! With such another book as that, I
swear I could hold him here until morning. There would be no need of
chloroform to keep him from the House."

The eyes of all were fastened upon Sir Andrew, and each saw, with
fascination, that, with his forefinger, he was now separating the
last two pages of the book. The member of Parliament struck the
table, softly, with his open palm.

"I would give a hundred pounds," he whispered, "if I could place in
his hands at this moment a new story of Sherlock Holmes—a thousand
pounds," he added, wildly—"five thousand pounds!"

The American observed the speaker sharply, as though the words bore
to him some special application, and then, at an idea which
apparently had but just come to him, smiled, in great embarrassment.

Sir Andrew ceased reading, but, as though still under the influence
of the book, sat looking, blankly, into the open fire. For a brief
space, no one moved until the baronet withdrew his eyes and, with a
sudden start of recollection, felt, anxiously, for his watch. He
scanned its face eagerly, and scrambled to his feet.

The voice of the American instantly broke the silence in a high,
nervous accent.

"And yet Sherlock Holmes himself," he cried, "could not decipher
the mystery which to-night baffles the police of London."

At these unexpected words, which carried in them something of the
tone of a challenge, the gentlemen about the table started as
suddenly as though the American had fired a pistol in the air, and
Sir Andrew halted, abruptly, and stood observing him with grave
surprise.

The gentleman with the black pearl was the first to recover.

"Yes, yes," he said, eagerly, throwing himself across the table. "A
mystery that baffles the police of London. I have heard nothing of
it. Tell us at once, pray do—tell us at once."

The American flushed uncomfortably, and picked, uneasily, at the
table-cloth.

"No one but the police has heard of it," he murmured, "and they
only through me. It is a remarkable crime, to which, unfortunately, I
am the only person who can bear witness. Because I am the only
witness, I am, in spite of my immunity as a diplomat, detained in
London by the authorities of Scotland Yard. My name," he said,
inclining his head, politely, "is Sears, Lieutenant Ripley Sears, of
the United States Navy, at present Naval Attache to the Court of
Russia. Had I not been detained to-day by the police, I would have
started this morning for Petersburg."

The gentleman with the black pearl interrupted with so pronounced
an exclamation of excitement and delight that the American stammered
and ceased speaking.

"Do you hear, Sir Andrew?" cried the member of Parliament,
jubilantly. "An American diplomat halted by our police because he is
the only witness of a most remarkable crime—THE most remarkable
crime, I believe you said, sir," he added, bending eagerly toward the
naval officer, "which has occurred in London in many years."

The American moved his head in assent, and glanced at the two other
members. They were looking, doubtfully, at him, and the face of each
showed that he was greatly perplexed.

Sir Andrew advanced to within the light of the candles and drew a
chair toward him.

"The crime must be exceptional, indeed," he said, "to justify the
police in interfering with a representative of a friendly power. If I
were not forced to leave at once, I should take the liberty of asking
you to tell us the details."

The gentleman with the pearl pushed the chair toward Sir Andrew,
and motioned him to be seated.

"You cannot leave us now," he exclaimed. "Mr. Sears is just about
to tell us of this remarkable crime."

He nodded, vigorously, at the naval officer and the American, after
first glancing, doubtfully, toward the servants at the far end of the
room, and leaned forward across the table. The others drew their
chairs nearer and bent toward him. The baronet glanced, irresolutely,
at his watch, and, with an exclamation of annoyance, snapped down the
lid. "They can wait," he muttered. He seated himself quickly, and
nodded at Lieutenant Sears.

"If you will be so kind as to begin, sir," he said, impatiently.

"Of course," said the American, "you understand that I understand
that I am speaking to gentlemen. The confidences of this Club are
inviolate. Until the police give the facts to the public press, I
must consider you my confederates. You have heard nothing, you know
no one connected with this mystery. Even I must remain anonymous."

The gentlemen seated around him nodded gravely.

"Of course," the baronet assented, with eagerness, "of course."

"We will refer to it," said the gentleman with the black pearl, "as
'The Story of the Naval Attache.'"

"I arrived in London two days ago," said the American, "and I
engaged a room at the Bath Hotel. I know very few people in London,
and even the members of our embassy were strangers to me. But in Hong
Kong I had become great pals with an officer in your navy, who has
since retired, and who is now living in a small house in Rutland
Gardens, opposite the Knightsbridge Barracks. I telegraphed him that I
was in London, and yesterday morning I received a most hearty
invitation to dine with him the same evening at his house. He is a
bachelor, so we dined alone and talked over all our old days on the
Asiatic Station and of the changes which had come to us since we had
last met there. As I was leaving the next morning for my post at
Petersburg, and had many letters to write, I told him, about ten
o'clock, that I must get back to the hotel, and he sent out his
servant to call a hansom.

"For the next quarter of an hour, as we sat talking, we could hear
the cab-whistle sounding, violently, from the doorstep, but
apparently with no result.

"'It cannot be that the cabmen are on strike,' my friend said, as
he rose and walked to the window.

"He pulled back the curtains and at once called to me.

"'You have never seen a London fog, have you?' he asked. 'Well,
come here. This is one of the best, or, rather, one of the worst, of
them.' I joined him at the window, but I could see nothing. Had I not
known that the house looked out upon the street I would have believed
that I was facing a dead wall. I raised the sash and stretched out my
head, but still I could see nothing. Even the light of the street-
lamps, opposite, and in the upper windows of the barracks, had been
smothered in the yellow mist. The lights of the room in which I stood
penetrated the fog only to the distance of a few inches from my eyes.

"Below me the servant was still sounding his whistle, but I could
afford to wait no longer, and told my friend that I would try and
find the way to my hotel on foot. He objected, but the letters I had
to write were for the Navy Department, and, besides, I had always
heard that to be out in a London fog was the most wonderful
experience, and I was curious to investigate one for myself.

"My friend went with me to his front door, and laid down a course
for me to follow. I was first to walk straight across the street to
the brick wall of the Knightsbridge Barracks. I was then to feel my
way along the wall until I came to a row of houses set back from the
sidewalk. They would bring me to a cross street. On the other side of
this street was a row of shops which I was to follow until they
joined the iron railings of Hyde Park. I was to keep to the railings
until I reached the gates at Hyde Park Corner, where I was to lay a
diagonal course across Piccadilly, and tack in toward the railings of
Green Park. At the end of these railings, going east, I would find
the Walsingham, and my own hotel.

"To a sailor the course did not seem difficult, so I bade my friend
good-night and walked forward until my feet touched the paving. I
continued upon it until I reached the curbing of the sidewalk. A few
steps further, and my hands struck the wall of the barracks. I turned
in the direction from which I had just come, and saw a square of
faint light cut in the yellow fog. I shouted, 'All right,' and the
voice of my friend answered, 'Good luck to you.' The light from his
open door disappeared with a bang, and I was left alone in a
dripping, yellow darkness. I have been in the Navy for ten years, but
I have never known such a fog as that of last night, not even among
the icebergs of Behring Sea. There one at least could see the light
of the binnacle, but last night I could not even distinguish the hand
by which I guided myself along the barrack-wall. At sea a fog is a
natural phenomenon. It is as familiar as the rainbow which follows a
storm, it is as proper that a fog should spread upon the waters as
that steam shall rise from a kettle. But a fog which springs from the
paved streets, that rolls between solid house-fronts, that forces
cabs to move at half speed, that drowns policemen and extinguishes
the electric lights of the music-hall, that to me is
incomprehensible. It is as out of place as a tidal wave on Broadway.

"As I felt my way along the wall, I encountered other men who were
coming from the opposite direction, and each time when we hailed each
other I stepped away from the wall to make room for them to pass. But
the third time I did this, when I reached out my hand, the wall had
disappeared, and the further I moved to find it the further I seemed
to be sinking into space. I had the unpleasant conviction that at any
moment I might step over a precipice. Since I had set out, I had
heard no traffic in the street, and now, although I listened some
minutes, I could only distinguish the occasional footfalls of
pedestrians. Several times I called aloud, and once a jocular
gentleman answered me, but only to ask me where I thought he was, and
then even he was swallowed up in the silence. Just above me I could
make out a jet of gas which I guessed came from a street-lamp, and I
moved over to that, and, while I tried to recover my bearings, kept
my hand on the iron post. Except for this nicker of gas, no larger
than the tip of my finger, I could distinguish nothing about me. For
the rest, the mist hung between me and the world like a damp and
heavy blanket.

"I could hear voices, but I could not tell from whence they came,
and the scrape of a foot, moving cautiously, or a muffled cry as
someone stumbled, were the only sounds that reached me.

"I decided that until someone took me in I had best remain where I
was, and it must have been for ten minutes that I waited by the lamp,
straining my ears and hailing distant footfalls. In a house near me
some people were dancing to the music of a Hungarian band. I even
fancied I could hear the windows shake to the rhythm of their feet,
but I could not make out from which part of the compass the sounds
came. And sometimes, as the music rose, it seemed close at my hand,
and, again, to be floating high in the air above my head. Although I
was surrounded by thousands of householders, I was as completely lost
as though I had been set down by night in the Sahara Desert. There
seemed to be no reason in waiting longer for an escort, so I again
set out, and at once bumped against a low, iron fence. At first I
believed this to be an area railing, but, on following it, I found
that it stretched for a long distance, and that it was pierced at
regular intervals with gates. I was standing, uncertainly, with my
hand on one of these, when a square of light suddenly opened in the
night, and in it I saw, as you see a picture thrown by a biograph in
a darkened theatre, a young gentleman in evening dress, and, back of
him, the lights of a hall. I guessed, from its elevation and distance
from the sidewalk, that this light must come from the door of a house
set back from the street, and I determined to approach it and ask the
young man to tell me where I was. But, in fumbling with the lock of
the gate, I instinctively bent my head, and when I raised it again
the door had partly closed, leaving only a narrow shaft of light.
Whether the young man had re-entered the house, or had left it I
could not tell, but I hastened to open the gate, and as I stepped
forward I found myself upon an asphalt walk. At the same instant
there was the sound of quick steps upon the path, and someone rushed
past me. I called to him, but he made no reply, and I heard the gate
click and the footsteps hurrying away upon the sidewalk.

"Under other circumstances the young man's rudeness, and his
recklessness in dashing so hurriedly through the mist, would have
struck me as peculiar, but everything was so distorted by the fog
that at the moment I did not consider it. The door was still as he
had left it, partly open. I went up the path, and, after much
fumbling, found the knob of the door-bell and gave it a sharp pull.
The bell answered me from a great depth and distance, but no movement
followed from inside the house, and, although I pulled the bell again
and again, I could hear nothing save the dripping of the mist about
me. I was anxious to be on my way, but unless I knew where I was
going there was little chance of my making any speed, and I was
determined that until I learned my bearings I would not venture back
into the fog. So I pushed the door open and stepped into the house.

"I found myself in a long and narrow hall, upon which doors opened
from either side. At the end of the hall was a staircase with a
balustrade which ended in a sweeping curve. The balustrade was
covered with heavy, Persian rugs, and the walls of the hall were also
hung with them. The door on my left was closed, but the one nearer me
on the right was open, and, as I stepped opposite to it, I saw that
it was a sort of reception or waiting-room, and that it was empty.
The door below it was also open, and, with the idea that I would
surely find someone there, I walked on up the hall. I was in evening
dress, and I felt I did not look like a burglar, so I had no great
fear that, should I encounter one of the inmates of the house, he
would shoot me on sight. The second door in the hall opened into a
dining-room. This was also empty. One person had been dining at the
table, but the cloth had not been cleared away, and a flickering
candle showed half-filled wineglasses and the ashes of cigarettes.
The greater part of the room was in complete darkness.

"By this time I had grown conscious of the fact that I was
wandering about in a strange house, and that, apparently, I was alone
in it. The silence of the place began to try my nerves, and in a
sudden, unexplainable panic I started for the open street. But as I
turned, I saw a man sitting on a bench, which the curve of the
balustrade had hidden from me. His eyes were shut, and he was sleeping
soundly.

"The moment before I had been bewildered because I could see no
one, but at sight of this man I was much more bewildered.

"He was a very large man, a giant in height, with long, yellow
hair, which hung below his shoulders. He was dressed in a red silk
shirt, that was belted at the waist and hung outside black velvet
trousers, which, in turn, were stuffed into high, black boots. I
recognized the costume at once as that of a Russian servant, but what
a Russian servant in his native livery could be doing in a private
house in Knightsbridge was incomprehensible.

"I advanced and touched the man on the shoulder, and, after an
effort, he awoke, and, on seeing me, sprang to his feet and began
bowing rapidly, and making deprecatory gestures. I had picked up
enough Russian in Petersburg to make out that the man was apologizing
for having fallen asleep, and I also was able to explain to him that
I desired to see his master.

"He nodded vigorously, and said, 'Will the Excellency come this
way? The Princess is here.'

"I distinctly made out the word 'princess,' and I was a good deal
embarrassed. I had thought it would be easy enough to explain my
intrusion to a man, but how a woman would look at it was another
matter, and as I followed him down the hall I was somewhat puzzled.

"As we advanced, he noticed that the front door was standing open,
and with an exclamation of surprise, hastened toward it and closed
it. Then he rapped twice on the door of what was apparently the
drawing-room. There was no reply to his knock, and he tapped again,
and then, timidly, and cringing subserviently, opened the door and
stepped inside. He withdrew himself at once and stared stupidly at
me, shaking his head.

"'She is not there,' he said. He stood for a moment, gazing blankly
through the open door, and then hastened toward the dining-room. The
solitary candle which still burned there seemed to assure him that
the room also was empty. He came back and bowed me toward the
drawing-room. 'She is above,' he said; 'I will inform the Princess of
the Excellency's presence.'

"Before I could stop him, he had turned and was running up the
staircase, leaving me alone at the open door of the drawing-room. I
decided that the adventure had gone quite far enough, and if I had
been able to explain to the Russian that I had lost my way in the
fog, and only wanted to get back into the street again, I would have
left the house on the instant.

"Of course, when I first rang the bell of the house I had no other
expectation than that it would be answered by a parlor-maid who would
direct me on my way. I certainly could not then foresee that I would
disturb a Russian princess in her boudoir, or that I might be thrown
out by her athletic bodyguard. Still, I thought I ought not now to
leave the house without making some apology, and, if the worst should
come, I could show my card. They could hardly believe that a member
of an Embassy had any designs upon the hat-rack.

"The room in which I stood was dimly lighted, but I could see that,
like the hall, it was hung with heavy, Persian rugs. The corners were
filled with palms, and there was the unmistakable odor in the air of
Russian cigarettes, and strange, dry scents that carried me back to
the bazaars of Vladivostock. Near the front windows was a grand
piano, and at the other end of the room a heavily carved screen of
some black wood, picked out with ivory. The screen was overhung with
a canopy of silken draperies, and formed a sort of alcove. In front
of the alcove was spread the white skin of a polar bear, and set on
that was one of those low, Turkish coffee-tables. It held a lighted
spirit-lamp and two gold coffee-cups. I had heard no movement from
above stairs, and it must have been fully three minutes that I stood
waiting, noting these details of the room and wondering at the delay,
and at the strange silence.

"And then, suddenly, as my eye grew more used to the half-light, I
saw, projecting from behind the screen, as though it were stretched
along the back of a divan, the hand of a man and the lower part of
his arm. I was as startled as though I had come across a footprint on
a deserted island. Evidently, the man had been sitting there since I
had come into the room, even since I had entered the house, and he
had heard the servant knocking upon the door. Why he had not declared
himself I could not understand, but I supposed that, possibly, he was
a guest, with no reason to interest himself in the Princess's other
visitors, or, perhaps, for some reason, he did not wish to be
observed. I could see nothing of him except his hand, but I had an
unpleasant feeling that he had been peering at me through the carving
in the screen, and that he still was doing so. I moved my feet
noisily on the floor and said, tentatively, 'I beg your pardon.'

"There was no reply, and the hand did not stir. Apparently, the man
was bent upon ignoring me, but, as all I wished was to apologize for
my intrusion and to leave the house, I walked up to the alcove and
peered around it. Inside the screen was a divan piled with cushions,
and on the end of it nearer me the man was sitting. He was a young
Englishman with light-yellow hair and a deeply bronzed face. He was
seated with his arms stretched out along the back of the divan, and
with his head resting against a cushion. His attitude was one of
complete ease. But his mouth had fallen open, and his eyes were set
with an expression of utter horror. At the first glance, I saw that
he was quite dead.

"For a flash of time I was too startled to act, but in the same
flash I was convinced that the man had met his death from no accident,
that he had not died through any ordinary failure of the laws of
nature. The expression on his face was much too terrible to be
misinterpreted. It spoke as eloquently as words. It told me that
before the end had come he had watched his death approach and
threaten him.

"I was so sure he had been murdered that I instinctively looked on
the floor for the weapon, and, at the same moment, out of concern for
my own safety, quickly behind me; but the silence of the house
continued unbroken.

"I have seen a great number of dead men; I was on the Asiatic
Station during the Japanese-Chinese war. I was in Port Arthur after
the massacre. So a dead man, for the single reason that he is dead,
does not repel me, and, though I knew that there was no hope that this
man was alive, still, for decency's sake, I felt his pulse, and, while
I kept my ears alert for any sound from the floors above me, I pulled
open his shirt and placed my hand upon his heart. My fingers
instantly touched upon the opening of a wound, and as I withdrew them
I found them wet with blood. He was in evening dress, and in the wide
bosom of his shirt I found a narrow slit, so narrow that in the dim
light it was scarcely discernible. The wound was no wider than the
smallest blade of a pocket-knife, but when I stripped the shirt away
from the chest and left it bare, I found that the weapon, narrow as
it was, had been long enough to reach his heart. There is no need to
tell you how I felt as I stood by the body of this boy, for he was
hardly older than a boy, or of the thoughts that came into my head. I
was bitterly sorry for this stranger, bitterly indignant at his
murderer, and, at the same time, selfishly concerned for my own
safety and for the notoriety which I saw was sure to follow. My
instinct was to leave the body where it lay, and to hide myself in
the fog, but I also felt that since a succession of accidents had
made me the only witness to a crime, my duty was to make myself a
good witness and to assist to establish the facts of this murder.

"That it might, possibly, be a suicide, and not a murder, did not
disturb me for a moment. The fact that the weapon had disappeared,
and the expression on the boy's face were enough to convince, at
least me, that he had had no hand in his own death. I judged it,
therefore, of the first importance to discover who was in the house,
or, if they had escaped from it, who had been in the house before I
entered it. I had seen one man leave it; but all I could tell of him
was that he was a young man, that he was in evening dress, and that
he had fled in such haste that he had not stopped to close the door
behind him.

"The Russian servant I had found apparently asleep, and, unless he
acted a part with supreme skill, he was a stupid and ignorant boor,
and as innocent of the murder as myself. There was still the Russian
princess whom he had expected to find, or had pretended to expect to
find, in the same room with the murdered man. I judged that she must
now be either upstairs with the servant, or that she had, without his
knowledge, already fled from the house. When I recalled his
apparently genuine surprise at not finding her in the drawing-room,
this latter supposition seemed the more probable. Nevertheless, I
decided that it was my duty to make a search, and after a second
hurried look for the weapon among the cushions of the divan, and upon
the floor, I cautiously crossed the hall and entered the dining-room.

"The single candle was still flickering in the draught, and showed
only the white cloth. The rest of the room was draped in shadows. I
picked up the candle, and, lifting it high above my head, moved
around the corner of the table. Either my nerves were on such a
stretch that no shock could strain them further, or my mind was
inoculated to horrors, for I did not cry out at what I saw nor
retreat from it. Immediately at my feet was the body of a beautiful
woman, lying at full length upon the floor, her arms flung out on
either side of her, and her white face and shoulders gleaming, dully,
in the unsteady light of the candle. Around her throat was a great
chain of diamonds, and the light played upon these and made them
flash and blaze in tiny flames. But the woman who wore them was dead,
and I was so certain as to how she had died that, without an
instant's hesitation, I dropped on my knees beside her and placed my
hands above her heart. My fingers again touched the thin slit of a
wound. I had no doubt in my mind but that this was the Russian
princess, and when I lowered the candle to her face I was assured
that this was so. Her features showed the finest lines of both the
Slav and the Jewess; the eyes were black, the hair blue-black and
wonderfully heavy, and her skin, even in death, was rich in color.
She was a surpassingly beautiful woman.

"I rose and tried to light another candle with the one I held, but
I found that my hand was so unsteady that I could not keep the wicks
together. It was my intention to again search for this strange dagger
which had been used to kill both the English boy and the beautiful
princess, but before I could light the second candle I heard
footsteps descending the stairs, and the Russian servant appeared in
the doorway.

"My face was in darkness, or I am sure that, at the sight of it, he
would have taken alarm, for at that moment I was not sure but that
this man himself was the murderer. His own face was plainly visible
to me in the light from the hall, and I could see that it wore an
expression of dull bewilderment. I stepped quickly toward him and
took a firm hold upon his wrist.

"'She is not there,' he said. 'The Princess has gone. They have all
gone.'

"'Who have gone?' I demanded. 'Who else has been here? '

"'The two Englishmen,' he said.

"'What two Englishmen?' I demanded. 'What are their names?'

"The man now saw by my manner that some question of great moment
hung upon his answer, and he began to protest that he did not know the
names of the visitors and that until that evening he had never seen
them.

"I guessed that it was my tone which frightened him, so I took my
hand off his wrist and spoke less eagerly.

"'How long have they been here?' I asked, 'and when did they go?'

"He pointed behind him toward the drawing-room.

"'One sat there with the Princess,' he said; 'the other came after
I had placed the coffee in the drawing-room. The two Englishmen talked
together, and the Princess returned here to the table. She sat there
in that chair, and I brought her cognac and cigarettes. Then I sat
outside upon the bench. It was a feast-day, and I had been drinking.
Pardon, Excellency, but I fell asleep. When I woke, your Excellency
was standing by me, but the Princess and the two Englishmen had gone.
That is all I know.'

"I believed that the man was telling me the truth. His fright had
passed, and he was now apparently puzzled, but not alarmed.

"'You must remember the names of the Englishmen,' I urged. 'Try to
think. When you announced them to the Princess what name did you
give?'

"At this question he exclaimed, with pleasure, and, beckoning to
me, ran hurriedly down the hall and into the drawing-room. In the
corner furthest from the screen was the piano, and on it was a silver
tray. He picked this up and, smiling with pride at his own
intelligence, pointed at two cards that lay upon it. I took them up
and read the names engraved upon them."

The American paused abruptly, and glanced at the faces about him.
"I read the names," he repeated. He spoke with great reluctance.

"Continue!" cried the baronet, sharply.

"I read the names," said the American with evident distaste, "and
the family name of each was the same. They were the names of two
brothers. One is well known to you. It is that of the African
explorer of whom this gentleman was just speaking. I mean the Earl of
Chetney. The other was the name of his brother. Lord Arthur Chetney."

The men at the table fell back as though a trapdoor had fallen open
at their feet.

"Lord Chetney?" they exclaimed, in chorus. They glanced at each
other and back to the American, with every expression of concern and
disbelief.

"It is impossible!" cried the Baronet. "Why, my dear sir, young
Chetney only arrived from Africa yesterday. It was so stated in the
evening papers."

The jaw of the American set in a resolute square, and he pressed
his lips together.

"You are perfectly right, sir," he said, "Lord Chetney did arrive
in London yesterday morning, and yesterday night I found his dead
body."

The youngest member present was the first to recover. He seemed
much less concerned over the identity of the murdered man than at the
interruption of the narrative.

"Oh, please let him go on!" he cried. "What happened then? You say
you found two visiting-cards. How do you know which card was that of
the murdered man?"

The American, before he answered, waited until the chorus of
exclamations had ceased. Then he continued as though he had not been
interrupted.

"The instant I read the names upon the cards," he said, "I ran to
the screen and, kneeling beside the dead man, began a search through
his pockets. My hand at once fell upon a card-case, and I found on all
the cards it contained the title of the Earl of Chetney. His watch
and cigarette-case also bore his name. These evidences, and the fact
of his bronzed skin, and that his cheek-bones were worn with fever,
convinced me that the dead man was the African explorer, and the boy
who had fled past me in the night was Arthur, his younger brother.

"I was so intent upon my search that I had forgotten the servant,
and I was still on my knees when I heard a cry behind me. I turned,
and saw the man gazing down at the body in abject horror.

"Before I could rise, he gave another cry of terror, and, flinging
himself into the hall, raced toward the door to the street. I leaped
after him, shouting to him to halt, but before I could reach the hall
he had torn open the door, and I saw him spring out into the yellow
fog. I cleared the steps in a jump and ran down the garden-walk but
just as the gate clicked in front of me. I had it open on the
instant, and, following the sound of the man's footsteps, I raced
after him across the open street. He, also, could hear me, and he
instantly stopped running, and there was absolute silence. He was so
near that I almost fancied I could hear him panting, and I held my
own breath to listen. But I could distinguish nothing but the
dripping of the mist about us, and from far off the music of the
Hungarian band, which I had heard when I first lost myself.

"All I could see was the square of light from the door I had left
open behind me, and a lamp in the hall beyond it flickering in the
draught. But even as I watched it, the flame of the lamp was blown
violently to and fro, and the door, caught in the same current of
air, closed slowly. I knew if it shut I could not again enter the
house, and I rushed madly toward it. I believe I even shouted out, as
though it were something human which I could compel to obey me, and
then I caught my foot against the curb and smashed into the sidewalk.
When I rose to my feet I was dizzy and half stunned, and though I
thought then that I was moving toward the door, I know now that I
probably turned directly from it; for, as I groped about in the
night, calling frantically for the police, my fingers touched nothing
but the dripping fog, and the iron railings for which I sought seemed
to have melted away. For many minutes I beat the mist with my arms
like one at blind man's buff, turning sharply in circles, cursing
aloud at my stupidity and crying continually for help. At last a
voice answered me from the fog, and I found myself held in the circle
of a policeman's lantern.

"That is the end of my adventure. What I have to tell you now is
what I learned from the police.

"At the station-house to which the man guided me I related what you
have just heard. I told them that the house they must at once find
was one set back from the street within a radius of two hundred yards
from the Knightsbridge Barracks, that within fifty yards of it
someone was giving a dance to the music of a Hungarian band, and that
the railings before it were as high as a man's waist and filed to a
point. With that to work upon, twenty men were at once ordered out
into the fog to search for the house, and Inspector Lyle himself was
despatched to the home of Lord Edam, Chetney's father, with a warrant
for Lord Arthur's arrest. I was thanked and dismissed on my own
recognizance.

"This morning, Inspector Lyle called on me, and from him I learned
the police theory of the scene I have just described.

"Apparently, I had wandered very far in the fog, for up to noon to-
day the house had not been found, nor had they been able to arrest
Lord Arthur. He did not return to his father's house last night, and
there is no trace of him; but from what the police knew of the past
lives of the people I found in that lost house, they have evolved a
theory, and their theory is that the murders were committed by Lord
Arthur.

"The infatuation of his elder brother, Lord Chetney, for a Russian
princess, so Inspector Lyle tells me, is well known to everyone.
About two years ago the Princess Zichy, as she calls herself, and he
were constantly together, and Chetney informed his friends that they
were about to be married. The woman was notorious in two continents,
and when Lord Edam heard of his son's infatuation he appealed to the
police for her record.

"It is through his having applied to them that they know so much
concerning her and her relations with the Chetneys. From the police
Lord Edam learned that Madame Zichy had once been a spy in the employ
of the Russian Third Section, but that lately she had been repudiated
by her own government and was living by her wits, by blackmail, and
by her beauty. Lord Edam laid this record before his son, but Chetney
either knew it already or the woman persuaded him not to believe in
it, and the father and son parted in great anger. Two days later the
marquis altered his will, leaving all of his money to the younger
brother, Arthur.

"The title and some of the landed property he could not keep from
Chetney, but he swore if his son saw the woman again that the will
should stand as it was, and he would be left without a penny.

"This was about eighteen months ago, when, apparently, Chetney
tired of the Princess, and suddenly went off to shoot and explore in
Central Africa. No word came from him, except that twice he was
reported as having died of fever in the jungle, and finally two
traders reached the coast who said they had seen his body. This was
accepted by all as conclusive, and young Arthur was recognized as the
heir to the Edam millions. On the strength of this supposition he at
once began to borrow enormous sums from the money-lenders. This is of
great importance, as the police believe it was these debts which
drove him to the murder of his brother. Yesterday, as you know, Lord
Chetney suddenly returned from the grave, and it was the fact that
for two years he had been considered as dead which lent such
importance to his return and which gave rise to those columns of
detail concerning him which appeared in all the afternoon papers.
But, obviously, during his absence he had not tired of the Princess
Zichy, for we know that a few hours after he reached London he sought
her out. His brother, who had also learned of his reappearance
through the papers, probably suspected which would be the house he
would first visit, and followed him there, arriving, so the Russian
servant tells us, while the two were at coffee in the drawing-room.
The Princess, then, we also learn from the servant, withdrew to the
dining-room, leaving the brothers together. What happened one can
only guess.

"Lord Arthur knew now that when it was discovered he was no longer
the heir, the moneylenders would come down upon him. The police
believe that he at once sought out his brother to beg for money to
cover the post-obits, but that, considering the sum he needed was
several hundreds of thousands of pounds, Chetney refused to give it
him. No one knew that Arthur had gone to seek out his brother. They
were alone. It is possible, then, that in a passion of
disappointment, and crazed with the disgrace which he saw before him,
young Arthur made himself the heir beyond further question. The death
of his brother would have availed nothing if the woman remained
alive. It is then possible that he crossed the hall, and, with the
same weapon which made him Lord Edam's heir, destroyed the solitary
witness to the murder. The only other person who could have seen it
was sleeping in a drunken stupor, to which fact undoubtedly he owed
his life. And yet," concluded the Naval Attache, leaning forward and
marking each word with his finger, "Lord Arthur blundered fatally. In
his haste he left the door of the house open, so giving access to the
first passer-by, and he forgot that when he entered it he had handed
his card to the servant. That piece of paper may yet send him to the
gallows. In the meantime, he has disappeared completely, and
somewhere, in one of the millions of streets of this great capital,
in a locked and empty house, lies the body of his brother, and of the
woman his brother loved, undiscovered, unburied; and with their
murder unavenged."

In the discussion which followed the conclusion of the story of the
Naval Attache, the gentleman with the pearl took no part. Instead, he
arose, and, beckoning a servant to a far corner of the room,
whispered earnestly to him until a sudden movement on the part of Sir
Andrew caused him to return hurriedly to the table.

"There are several points in Mr. Sears's story I want explained,"
he cried. "Be seated, Sir Andrew," he begged. "Let us have the opinion
of an expert. I do not care what the police think, I want to know
what you think."

But Sir Andrew rose reluctantly from his chair.

"I should like nothing better than to discuss this," he said. "But
it is most important that I proceed to the House. I should have been
there some time ago." He turned toward the servant and directed him
to call a hansom.

The gentleman with the pearl stud looked appealingly at the Naval
Attache. "There are surely many details that you have not told us,"
he urged. "Some you have forgotten."

The Baronet interrupted quickly.

"I trust not," he said, "for I could not possibly stop to hear
them."

"The story is finished," declared the Naval Attache; "until Lord
Arthur is arrested or the bodies are found there is nothing more to
tell of either Chetney or the Princess Zichy."

"Of Lord Chetney, perhaps not," interrupted the sporting-looking
gentleman with the black tie, "but there'll always be something to
tell of the Princess Zichy. I know enough stories about her to fill a
book. She was a most remarkable woman." The speaker dropped the end
of his cigar into his coffee-cup and, taking his case from his
pocket, selected a fresh one. As he did so he laughed and held up the
case that the others might see it. It was an ordinary cigar-case of
well-worn pig-skin, with a silver clasp.

"The only time I ever met her," he said, "she tried to rob me of
this."

The Baronet regarded him closely.

"She tried to rob you?" he repeated.

"Tried to rob me of this," continued the gentleman in the black
tie, "and of the Czarina's diamonds." His tone was one of mingled
admiration and injury.

"The Czarina's diamonds!" exclaimed the Baronet. He glanced quickly
and suspiciously at the speaker, and then at the others about the
table. But their faces gave evidence of no other emotion than that of
ordinary interest.

"Yes, the Czarina's diamonds," repeated the man with the black tie.
"It was a necklace of diamonds. I was told to take them to the
Russian Ambassador in Paris, who was to deliver them at Moscow. I am
a Queen's Messenger," he added.

"Oh, I see," exclaimed Sir Andrew, in a tone of relief. "And you
say that this same Princess Zichy, one of the victims of this double
murder, endeavored to rob you of—of—that cigar-case."

"And the Czarina's diamonds," answered the Queen's Messenger,
imperturbably. "It's not much of a story, but it gives you an idea of
the woman's character. The robbery took place between Paris and
Marseilles."

The Baronet interrupted him with an abrupt movement. "No, no," he
cried, shaking his head in protest. "Do not tempt me. I really cannot
listen. I must be at the House in ten minutes."

"I am sorry," said the Queen's Messenger. He turned to those seated
about him. "I wonder if the other gentlemen—" he inquired,
tentatively. There was a chorus of polite murmurs, and the Queen's
Messenger, bowing his head in acknowledgment, took a preparatory sip
from his glass. At the same moment the servant to whom the man with
the black pearl had spoken, slipped a piece of paper into his hand.
He glanced at it, frowned, and threw it under the table.

The servant bowed to the Baronet.

"Your hansom is waiting, Sir Andrew," he said.

"The necklace was worth twenty thousand pounds," began the Queen's
Messenger, "It was a present from the Queen of England to celebrate—
" The Baronet gave an exclamation of angry annoyance.

"Upon my word, this is most provoking," he interrupted. "I really
ought not to stay. But I certainly mean to hear this." He turned
irritably to the servant. "Tell the hansom to wait," he commanded,
and, with an air of a boy who is playing truant, slipped guiltily
into his chair.

The gentleman with the black pearl smiled blandly, and rapped upon
the table.

"Order, gentlemen," he said. "Order for the story of the Queen's
Messenger and the Czarina's diamonds."

"The necklace was a present from the Queen of England to the
Czarina of Russia," began the Queen's Messenger. "It was to celebrate
the occasion of the Czar's coronation. Our Foreign Office knew that
the Russian Ambassador in Paris was to proceed to Moscow for that
ceremony, and I was directed to go to Paris and turn over the
necklace to him. But when I reached Paris I found he had not expected
me for a week later and was taking a few days' vacation at Nice. His
people asked me to leave the necklace with them at the Embassy, but I
had been charged to get a receipt for it from the Ambassador himself,
so I started at once for Nice. The fact that Monte Carlo is not two
thousand miles from Nice may have had something to do with making me
carry out my instructions so carefully.

"Now, how the Princess Zichy came to find out about the necklace I
don't know, but I can guess. As you have just heard, she was at one
time a spy in the service of the Russian Government. And after they
dismissed her she kept up her acquaintance with many of the Russian
agents in London. It is probable that through one of them she learned
that the necklace was to be sent to Moscow, and which one of the
Queen's Messengers had been detailed to take it there. Still, I doubt
if even that knowledge would have helped her if she had not also
known something which I supposed no one else in the world knew but
myself and one other man. And, curiously enough, the other man was a
Queen's Messenger, too, and a friend of mine. You must know that up
to the time of this robbery I had always concealed my despatches in a
manner peculiarly my own. I got the idea from that play called 'A
Scrap of Paper.' In it a man wants to hide a certain compromising
document. He knows that all his rooms will be secretly searched for
it, so he puts it in a torn envelope and sticks it up where anyone
can see it on his mantle-shelf. The result is that the woman who is
ransacking the house to find it looks in all the unlikely places, but
passes over the scrap of paper that is just under her nose. Sometimes
the papers and packages they give us to carry about Europe are of
very great value, and sometimes they are special makes of cigarettes,
and orders to court-dressmakers. Sometimes we know what we are
carrying and sometimes we do not. If it is a large sum of money or a
treaty, they generally tell us. But, as a rule, we have no knowledge
of what the package contains; so to be on the safe side, we naturally
take just as great care of it as though we knew it held the terms of
an ultimatum or the crown-jewels. As a rule, my confreres carry the
official packages in a despatch-box, which is just as obvious as a
lady's jewel-bag in the hands of her maid. Everyone knows they are
carrying something of value. They put a premium on dishonesty. Well,
after I saw the 'Scrap-of-Paper' play, I determined to put the
government valuables in the most unlikely place that anyone would
look for them. So I used to hide the documents they gave me inside my
riding-boots, and small articles, such as money or jewels, I carried
in an old cigar-case. After I took to using my case for that purpose
I bought a new one, exactly like it, for my cigars. But, to avoid
mistakes, I had my initials placed on both sides of the new one, and
the moment I touched the case, even in the dark, I could tell which
it was by the raised initials.

"No one knew of this except the Queen's Messenger of whom I spoke.
We once left Paris together on the Orient Express. I was going to
Constantinople and he was to stop off at Vienna. On the journey I
told him of my peculiar way of hiding things and showed him my cigar-
case. If I recollect rightly, on that trip it held the grand cross of
St. Michael and St. George, which the Queen was sending to our
Ambassador. The Messenger was very much entertained at my scheme, and
some months later when he met the Princess he told her about it as an
amusing story. Of course, he had no idea she was a Russian spy. He
didn't know anything at all about her, except that she was a very
attractive woman. It was indiscreet, but he could not possibly have
guessed that she could ever make any use of what he told her.

"Later, after the robbery, I remembered that I had informed this
young chap of my secret hiding-place, and when I saw him again I
questioned him about it. He was greatly distressed, and said he had
never seen the importance of the secret. He remembered he had told
several people of it, and among others the Princess Zichy. In that
way I found out that it was she who had robbed me, and I know that
from the moment I left London she was following me, and that she knew
then that the diamonds were concealed in my cigar-case.

"My train for Nice left Paris at ten in the morning. When I travel
at night I generally tell the chef de gare that I am a Queen's
Messenger, and he gives me a compartment to myself, but in the
daytime I take whatever offers. On this morning I had found an empty
compartment, and I had tipped the guard to keep everyone else out,
not from any fear of losing the diamonds, but because I wanted to
smoke. He had locked the door, and as the last bell had rung I
supposed I was to travel alone, so I began to arrange my traps and
make myself comfortable. The diamonds in the cigar-case were in the
inside pocket of my waistcoat, and as they made a bulky package, I
took them out, intending to put them in my hand-bag. It is a small
satchel like a bookmaker's, or those hand-bags that couriers carry. I
wear it slung from a strap across my shoulders, and, no matter
whether I am sitting or walking, it never leaves me.

"I took the cigar-case which held the necklace from my inside
pocket and the case which held the cigars out of the satchel, and
while I was searching through it for a box of matches I laid the two
cases beside me on the seat.

"At that moment the train started, but at the same instant there
was a rattle at the lock of the compartment, and a couple of porters
lifted and shoved a woman through the door, and hurled her rugs and
umbrellas in after her.

"Instinctively I reached for the diamonds. I shoved them quickly
into the satchel and, pushing them far down to the bottom of the bag,
snapped the spring-lock. Then I put the cigars in the pocket of my
coat, but with the thought that now that I had a woman as a
travelling companion I would probably not be allowed to enjoy them.

"One of her pieces of luggage had fallen at my feet, and a roll of
rugs had landed at my side. I thought if I hid the fact that the lady
was not welcome, and at once endeavored to be civil, she might permit
me to smoke. So I picked her hand-bag off the floor and asked her
where I might place it.

"As I spoke I looked at her for the first time, and saw that she
was a most remarkably handsome woman.

"She smiled charmingly and begged me not to disturb myself. Then
she arranged her own things about her, and, opening her dressing-bag,
took out a gold cigarette-case.

"'Do you object to smoke?' she asked.

"I laughed and assured her I had been in great terror lest she
might object to it herself.

"'If you like cigarettes,' she said, 'will you try some of these?
They are rolled especially for my husband in Russia, and they are
supposed to be very good.'

"I thanked her, and took one from her case, and I found it so much
better than my own that I continued to smoke her cigarettes
throughout the rest of the journey. I must say that we got on very
well. I judged from the coronet on her cigarette-case, and from her
manner, which was quite as well bred as that of any woman I ever met,
that she was someone of importance, and though she seemed almost too
good-looking to be respectable, I determined that she was some grande
dame who was so assured of her position that she could afford to be
unconventional. At first she read her novel, and then she made some
comment on the scenery, and finally we began to discuss the current
politics of the Continent. She talked of all the cities in Europe,
and seemed to know everyone worth knowing. But she volunteered
nothing about herself except that she frequently made use of the
expression, 'When my husband was stationed at Vienna,' or 'When my
husband was promoted to Rome.' Once she said to me, 'I have often
seen you at Monte Carlo. I saw you when you won the pigeon-
championship.' I told her that I was not a pigeon-shot, and she gave
a little start of surprise. 'Oh, I beg your pardon,' she said; 'I
thought you were Morton Hamilton, the English champion.' As a matter
of fact, I do look like Hamilton, but I know now that her object was
to make me think that she had no idea as to who I really was. She
needn't have acted at all, for I certainly had no suspicions of her,
and was only too pleased to have so charming a companion.

"The one thing that should have made me suspicious was the fact
that at every station she made some trivial excuse to get me out of
the compartment. She pretended that her maid was travelling back of us
in one of the second-class carriages, and kept saying she could not
imagine why the woman did not come to look after her, and if the maid
did not turn up at the next stop, would I be so very kind as to get
out and bring her whatever it was she pretended she wanted.

"I had taken my dressing-case from the rack to get out a novel, and
had left it on the seat opposite to mine, and at the end of the
compartment farthest from her. And once when I came back from buying
her a cup of chocolate, or from some other fool-errand, I found her
standing at my end of the compartment with both hands on the
dressing-bag. She looked at me without so much as winking an eye, and
shoved the case carefully into a corner. 'Your bag slipped off on the
floor,' she said. 'If you've got any bottles in it, you had better
look and see that they're not broken.'

"And I give you my word, I was such an ass that I did open the case
and looked all through it. She must have thought I WAS a Juggins. I
get hot all over whenever I remember it. But, in spite of my dulness,
and her cleverness, she couldn't gain anything by sending me away,
because what she wanted was in the hand-bag, and every time she sent
me away the hand-bag went with me.

"After the incident of the dressing-case her manner changed. Either
in my absence she had had time to look through it, or, when I was
examining it for broken bottles, she had seen everything it held.

"From that moment she must have been certain that the cigar-case,
in which she knew I carried the diamonds, was in the bag that was
fastened to my body, and from that time on she probably was plotting
how to get it from me.

"Her anxiety became most apparent. She dropped the great-lady
manner, and her charming condescension went with it. She ceased
talking, and, when I spoke, answered me irritably, or at random. No
doubt her mind was entirely occupied with her plan. The end of our
journey was drawing rapidly nearer, and her time for action was being
cut down with the speed of the express-train. Even I, unsuspicious as
I was, noticed that something was very wrong with her. I really
believe that before we reached Marseilles if I had not, through my own
stupidity, given her the chance she wanted, she might have stuck a
knife in me and rolled me out on the rails. But as it was, I only
thought that the long journey had tired her. I suggested that it was a
very trying trip, and asked her if she would allow me to offer her
some of my cognac.

"She thanked me and said, 'No,' and then suddenly her eyes lighted,
and she exclaimed, 'Yes, thank you, if you will be so kind.'

"My flask was in the hand-bag, and I placed it on my lap and, with
my thumb, slipped back the catch. As I keep my tickets and railroad-
guide in the bag, I am so constantly opening it that I never bother
to lock it, and the fact that it is strapped to me has always been
sufficient protection. But I can appreciate now what a satisfaction,
and what a torment, too, it must have been to that woman when she saw
that the bag opened without a key.

"While we were crossing the mountains I had felt rather chilly and
had been wearing a light racing-coat. But after the lamps were
lighted the compartment became very hot and stuffy, and I found the
coat uncomfortable. So I stood up, and after first slipping the strap
of the bag over my head, I placed the bag in the seat next me and
pulled off the racing-coat. I don't blame myself for being careless;
the bag was still within reach of my hand, and nothing would have
happened if at that exact moment the train had not stopped at Arles.
It was the combination of my removing the bag and our entering the
station at the same instant which gave the Princess Zichy the chance
she wanted to rob me.

"I needn't say that she was clever enough to take it. The train ran
into the station at full speed and came to a sudden stop. I had just
thrown my coat into the rack, and had reached out my hand for the
bag. In another instant I would have had the strap around my
shoulder. But at that moment the Princess threw open the door of the
compartment and beckoned wildly at the people on the platform.
'Natalie!' she called, 'Natalie! here I am. Come here! This way!' She
turned upon me in the greatest excitement. 'My maid!' she cried. 'She
is looking for me. She passed the window without seeing me. Go,
please, and bring her back.' She continued pointing out of the door
and beckoning me with her other hand. There certainly was something
about that woman's tone which made one jump. When she was giving
orders you had no chance to think of anything else. So I rushed out
on my errand of mercy, and then rushed back again to ask what the
maid looked like.

"'In black,' she answered, rising and blocking the door of the
compartment. 'All in black, with a bonnet!'

"The train waited three minutes at Arles, and in that time I
suppose I must have rushed up to over twenty women and asked, 'Are you
Natalie?' The only reason I wasn't punched with an umbrella or handed
over to the police was that they probably thought I was crazy.

"When I jumped back into the compartment the Princess was seated
where I had left her, but her eyes were burning with happiness. She
placed her hand on my arm almost affectionately, and said, in a
hysterical way, 'You are very kind to me. I am so sorry to have
troubled you.'

"I protested that every woman on the platform was dressed in black.

"'Indeed, I am so sorry,' she said, laughing; and she continued to
laugh until she began to breathe so quickly that I thought she was
going to faint.

"I can see now that the last part of that journey must have been a
terrible half-hour for her. She had the cigar-case safe enough, but
she knew that she herself was not safe. She understood if I were to
open my bag, even at the last minute, and miss the case, I would know
positively that she had taken it. I had placed the diamonds in the
bag at the very moment she entered the compartment, and no one but
our two selves had occupied it since. She knew that when we reached
Marseilles she would either be twenty thousand pounds richer than
when she left Paris, or that she would go to jail. That was the
situation as she must have read it, and I don't envy her her state of
mind during that last half-hour. It must have been hell.

"I saw that something was wrong, and, in my innocence, I even
wondered if possibly my cognac had not been a little too strong. For
she suddenly developed into a most brilliant conversationalist, and
applauded and laughed at everything I said, and fired off questions
at me like a machine-gun, so that I had no time to think of anything
but of what she was saying. Whenever I stirred, she stopped her
chattering and leaned toward me, and watched me like a cat over a
mouse-hole. I wondered how I could have considered her an agreeable
travelling-companion. I thought I would have preferred to be locked
in with a lunatic. I don't like to think how she would have acted if
I had made a move to examine the bag, but as I had it safely strapped
around me again, I did not open it, and I reached Marseilles alive.
As we drew into the station she shook hands with me and grinned at me
like a Cheshire cat.

"'I cannot tell you,' she said, 'how much I have to thank you for.'
What do you think of that for impudence?

"I offered to put her in a carriage, but she said she must find
Natalie, and that she hoped we would meet again at the hotel. So I
drove off by myself, wondering who she was, and whether Natalie was
not her keeper.

"I had to wait several hours for the train to Nice; and as I wanted
to stroll around the city I thought I had better put the diamonds in
the safe of the hotel. As soon as I reached my room I locked the
door, placed the hand-bag on the table, and opened it. I felt among
the things at the top of it, but failed to touch the cigar-case. I
shoved my hand in deeper, and stirred the things about, but still I
did not reach it. A cold wave swept down my spine, and a sort of
emptiness came to the pit of my stomach. Then I turned red-hot, and
the sweat sprung out all over me. I wet my lips with my tongue, and
said to myself, 'Don't be an ass. Pull yourself together, pull
yourself together. Take the things out, one at a time. It's there, of
course, it's there. Don't be an ass.'

"So I put a brake on my nerves and began very carefully to pick out
the things, one by one, but, after another second, I could not stand
it, and I rushed across the room and threw out everything on the bed.
But the diamonds were not among them. I pulled the things about and
tore them open and shuffled and rearranged and sorted them, but it
was no use. The cigar-case was gone. I threw everything in the
dressing-case out on the floor, although I knew it was useless to
look for it there. I knew that I had put it in the bag. I sat down
and tried to think. I remembered I had put it in the satchel at Paris
just as that woman had entered the compartment, and I had been alone
with her ever since, so it was she who had robbed me. But how? It had
never left my shoulder. And then I remembered that it had—that I had
taken it off when I had changed my coat and for the few moments that
I was searching for Natalie. I remembered that the woman had sent me
on that goose-chase, and that at every other station she had tried to
get rid of me on some fool-errand.

"I gave a roar like a mad bull, and I jumped down the stairs, six
steps at a time.

"I demanded at the office if a distinguished lady of title,
possibly a Russian, had just entered the hotel.

"As I expected, she had not. I sprang into a cab and inquired at
two other hotels, and then I saw the folly of trying to catch her
without outside help, and I ordered the fellow to gallop to the office
of the Chief of Police. I told my story, and the ass in charge asked
me to calm myself, and wanted to take notes. I told him this was no
time for taking notes, but for doing something. He got wrathy at that,
and I demanded to be taken at once to his Chief. The Chief, he said,
was very busy, and could not see me. So I showed him my silver
greyhound. In eleven years I had never used it but once before. I
stated, in pretty vigorous language, that I was a Queen's Messenger,
and that if the Chief of Police did not see me instantly he would lose
his official head. At that the fellow jumped off his high horse and
ran with me to his Chief—a smart young chap, a colonel in the army,
and a very intelligent man.

"I explained that I had been robbed, in a French railway-carriage,
of a diamond-necklace belonging to the Queen of England, which her
Majesty was sending as a present to the Czarina of Russia. I pointed
out to him that if he succeeded in capturing the thief he would be
made for life, and would receive the gratitude of three great powers.

"He wasn't the sort that thinks second thoughts are best. He saw
Russian and French decorations sprouting all over his chest, and he
hit a bell, and pressed buttons, and yelled out orders like the
captain of a penny-steamer in a fog. He sent her description to all
the city-gates, and ordered all cabmen and railway-porters to search
all trains leaving Marseilles. He ordered all passengers on outgoing
vessels to be examined, and telegraphed the proprietors of every
hotel and pension to send him a complete list of their guests within
the hour. While I was standing there he must have given at least a
hundred orders, and sent out enough commissaires, sergeants de ville,
gendarmes, bicycle-police, and plain-clothes Johnnies to have
captured the entire German army. When they had gone he assured me
that the woman was as good as arrested already. Indeed, officially,
she was arrested; for she had no more chance of escape from
Marseilles than from the Chateau D'If.

"He told me to return to my hotel and possess my soul in peace.
Within an hour he assured me he would acquaint me with her arrest.

"I thanked him, and complimented him on his energy, and left him.
But I didn't share in his confidence. I felt that she was a very
clever woman, and a match for any and all of us. It was all very well
for him to be jubilant. He had not lost the diamonds, and had
everything to gain if he found them; while I, even if he did recover
the necklace, would only be where I was before I lost them, and if he
did not recover it I was a ruined man. It was an awful facer for me. I
had always prided myself on my record. In eleven years I had never
mislaid an envelope, nor missed taking the first train. And now I had
failed in the most important mission that had ever been intrusted to
me. And it wasn't a thing that could be hushed up, either. It was too
conspicuous, too spectacular. It was sure to invite the widest
notoriety. I saw myself ridiculed all over the Continent, and perhaps
dismissed, even suspected of having taken the thing myself.

"I was walking in front of a lighted cafe, and I felt so sick and
miserable that I stopped for a pick-me-up. Then I considered that if
I took one drink I would probably, in my present state of mind, not
want to stop under twenty, and I decided I had better leave it alone.
But my nerves were jumping like a frightened rabbit, and I felt I
must have something to quiet them, or I would go crazy. I reached for
my cigarette-case, but a cigarette seemed hardly adequate, so I put
it back again and took out this cigar-case, in which I keep only the
strongest and blackest cigars. I opened it and stuck in my fingers,
but, instead of a cigar, they touched on a thin leather envelope. My
heart stood perfectly still. I did not dare to look, but I dug my
finger-nails into the leather, and I felt layers of thin paper, then
a layer of cotton, and then they scratched on the facets of the
Czarina's diamonds!

"I stumbled as though I had been hit in the face, and fell back
into one of the chairs on the sidewalk. I tore off the wrappings and
spread out the diamonds on the cafe-table; I could not believe they
were real. I twisted the necklace between my fingers and crushed it
between my palms and tossed it up in the air. I believe I almost
kissed it. The women in the cafe stood up on the chairs to see
better, and laughed and screamed, and the people crowded so close
around me that the waiters had to form a body-guard. The proprietor
thought there was a fight, and called for the police. I was so happy
I didn't care. I laughed, too, and gave the proprietor a five-pound
note, and told him to stand everyone a drink. Then I tumbled into a
fiacre and galloped off to my friend the Chief of Police. I felt very
sorry for him. He had been so happy at the chance I gave him, and he
was sure to be disappointed when he learned I had sent him off on a
false alarm.

"But now that I had found the necklace, I did not want him to find
the woman. Indeed, I was most anxious that she should get clear away,
for, if she were caught, the truth would come out, and I was likely
to get a sharp reprimand, and sure to be laughed at.

"I could see now how it had happened. In my haste to hide the
diamonds when the woman was hustled into the carriage, I had shoved
the cigars into the satchel, and the diamonds into the pocket of my
coat. Now that I had the diamonds safe again, it seemed a very
natural mistake. But I doubted if the Foreign Office would think so.
I was afraid it might not appreciate the beautiful simplicity of my
secret hiding-place. So, when I reached the police-station, and found
that the woman was still at large, I was more than relieved.

"As I expected, the Chief was extremely chagrined when he learned
of my mistake, and that there was nothing for him to do. But I was
feeling so happy myself that I hated to have anyone else miserable,
so I suggested that this attempt to steal the Czarina's necklace
might be only the first of a series of such attempts by an
unscrupulous gang, and that I might still be in danger.

"I winked at the Chief, and the Chief smiled at me, and we went to
Nice together in a saloon-car with a guard of twelve carabineers and
twelve plain-clothes men, and the Chief and I drank champagne all the
way. We marched together up to the hotel where the Russian Ambassador
was stopping, closely surrounded by our escort of carabineers, and
delivered the necklace with the most profound ceremony. The old
Ambassador was immensely impressed, and when we hinted that already I
had been made the object of an attack by robbers, he assured us that
his Imperial Majesty would not prove ungrateful.

"I wrote a swinging personal letter about the invaluable services
of the Chief to the French Minister of Foreign Affairs, and they gave
him enough Russian and French medals to satisfy even a French
soldier. So, though he never caught the woman, he received his just
reward."

The Queen's Messenger paused and surveyed the faces of those about
him in some embarrassment.

"But the worst of it is," he added, "that the story must have got
about; for, while the Princess obtained nothing from me but a cigar-
case and five excellent cigars, a few weeks after the coronation the
Czar sent me a gold cigar-case with his monogram in diamonds. And I
don't know yet whether that was a coincidence, or whether the Czar
wanted me to know that he knew that I had been carrying the Czarina's
diamonds in my pig-skin cigar-case. What do you fellows think?"

"I thought your story would bear upon the murder," he said. "Had I
imagined it would have nothing whatsoever to do with it, I would not
have remained." He pushed back his chair and bowed, stiffly. "I wish
you good night," he said.

There was a chorus of remonstrance, and, under cover of this and
the Baronet's answering protests, a servant, for the second time,
slipped a piece of paper into the hand of the gentleman with the pearl
stud. He read the lines written upon it and tore it into tiny
fragments.

The youngest member, who had remained an interested but silent
listener to the tale of the Queen's Messenger, raised his hand,
commandingly.

"Sir Andrew," he cried, "in justice to Lord Arthur Chetney, I must
ask you to be seated. He has been accused in our hearing of a most
serious crime, and I insist that you remain until you have heard me
clear his character."

"You!" cried the Baronet.

"Yes," answered the young man, briskly. "I would have spoken
sooner," he explained, "but that I thought this gentleman"—he
inclined his head toward the Queen's Messenger—"was about to
contribute some facts of which I was ignorant. He, however, has told
us nothing, and so I will take up the tale at the point where
Lieutenant Sears laid it down and give you those details of which
Lieutenant Sears is ignorant. It seems strange to you that I should be
able to add the sequel to this story. But the coincidence is easily
explained. I am the junior member of the law firm of Chudleigh
Chudleigh. We have been solicitors for the Chetneys for the last two
hundred years. Nothing, no matter how unimportant, which concerns Lord
Edam and his two sons is unknown to us, and naturally we are
acquainted with every detail of the terrible catastrophe of last
night."

The Baronet, bewildered but eager, sank back into his chair.

"Will you be long, sir?" he demanded.

"I shall endeavor to be brief," said the young solicitor; "and," he
added, in a tone which gave his words almost the weight of a threat,
"I promise to be interesting."

"There is no need to promise that," said Sir Andrew, "I find it
much too interesting as it is." He glanced ruefully at the clock and
turned his eyes quickly from it.

"Tell the driver of that hansom," he called to the servant, "that I
take him by the hour."

"For the last three days," began young Mr. Chudleigh, "as you have
probably read in the daily papers, the Marquis of Edam has been at
the point of death, and his physicians have never left his house.
Every hour he seemed to grow weaker; but although his bodily strength
is apparently leaving him forever, his mind has remained clear and
active. Late yesterday evening, word was received at our office that
he wished my father to come at once to Chetney House and to bring
with him certain papers. What these papers were is not essential; I
mention them only to explain how it was that last night I happened to
be at Lord Edam's bedside. I accompanied my father to Chetney House,
but at the time we reached there Lord Edam was sleeping, and his
physicians refused to have him awakened. My father urged that he
should be allowed to receive Lord Edam's instructions concerning the
documents, but the physicians would not disturb him, and we all
gathered in the library to wait until he should awake of his own
accord. It was about one o'clock in the morning, while we were still
there, that Inspector Lyle and the officers from Scotland Yard came
to arrest Lord Arthur on the charge of murdering his brother. You can
imagine our dismay and distress. Like everyone else, I had learned
from the afternoon papers that Lord Chetney was not dead, but that he
had returned to England, and, on arriving at Chetney House, I had
been told that Lord Arthur had gone to the Bath Hotel to look for his
brother and to inform him that if he wished to see their father alive
he must come to him at once. Although it was now past one o'clock,
Arthur had not returned. None of us knew where Madame Zichy lived, so
we could not go to recover Lord Chetney's body. We spent a most
miserable night, hastening to the window whenever a cab came into the
square, in the hope that it was Arthur returning, and endeavoring to
explain away the facts that pointed to him as the murderer. I am a
friend of Arthur's, I was with him at Harrow and at Oxford, and I
refused to believe for an instant that he was capable of such a
crime; but as a lawyer I could not help but see that the
circumstantial evidence was strongly against him.

"Toward early morning, Lord Edam awoke, and in so much better a
state of health that he refused to make the changes in the papers
which he had intended, declaring that he was no nearer death than
ourselves. Under other circumstances, this happy change in him would
have relieved us greatly, but none of us could think of anything save
the death of his elder son and of the charge which hung over Arthur.

"As long as Inspector Lyle remained in the house, my father decided
that I, as one of the legal advisers of the family, should also
remain there. But there was little for either of us to do. Arthur did
not return, and nothing occurred until late this morning, when Lyle
received word that the Russian servant had been arrested. He at once
drove to Scotland Yard to question him. He came back to us in an
hour, and informed me that the servant had refused to tell anything
of what had happened the night before, or of himself, or of the
Princess Zichy. He would not even give them the address of her house.

"'He is in abject terror,' Lyle said. 'I assured him that he was
not suspected of the crime, but he would tell me nothing.'

"There were no other developments until two o'clock this afternoon,
when word was brought to us that Arthur had been found, and that he
was lying in the accident-ward of St. George's Hospital. Lyle and I
drove there together, and found him propped up in bed with his head
bound in a bandage. He had been brought to the hospital the night
before by the driver of a hansom that had run over him in the fog.
The cab-horse had kicked him on the head, and he had been carried in
unconscious. There was nothing on him to tell who he was, and it was
not until he came to his senses this afternoon that the hospital
authorities had been able to send word to his people. Lyle at once
informed him that he was under arrest, and with what he was charged,
and though the Inspector warned him to say nothing which might be
used against him, I, as his solicitor, instructed him to speak freely
and to tell us all he knew of the occurrences of last night. It was
evident to anyone that the fact of his brother's death was of much
greater concern to him than that he was accused of his murder.

"'That,' Arthur said, contemptuously, 'that is damned nonsense. It
is monstrous and cruel. We parted better friends than we have been in
years. I will tell you all that happened—not to clear myself, but to
help you to find out the truth.' His story is as follows: Yesterday
afternoon, owing to his constant attendance on his father, he did not
look at the evening papers, and it was not until after dinner, when
the butler brought him one and told him of its contents, that he
learned that his brother was alive and at the Bath Hotel. He drove
there at once, but was told that about eight o'clock his brother had
gone out, but without giving any clew to his destination. As Chetney
had not at once come to see his father, Arthur decided that he was
still angry with him, and his mind, turning naturally to the cause of
their quarrel, determined him to look for Chetney at the home of the
Princess Zichy.

"Her house had been pointed out to him, and though he had never
visited it, he had passed it many times and knew its exact location.
He accordingly drove in that direction, as far as the fog would
permit the hansom to go, and walked the rest of the way, reaching the
house about nine o'clock. He rang, and was admitted by the Russian
servant. The man took his card into the drawing-room, and at once his
brother ran out and welcomed him. He was followed by the Princess
Zichy, who also received Arthur most cordially.

"'You brothers will have much to talk about,' she said. 'I am going
to the dining-room. When you have finished, let me know.'

"As soon as she had left them, Arthur told his brother that their
father was not expected to outlive the night, and that he must come
to him at once.

"'This is not the moment to remember your quarrel,' Arthur said to
him; 'you have come back from the dead only in time to make your
peace with him before he dies.'

"Arthur says that at this Chetney was greatly moved.

"'You entirely misunderstand me, Arthur,' he returned. 'I did not
know the governor was ill, or I would have gone to him the instant I
arrived. My only reason for not doing so was because I thought he was
still angry with me. I shall return with you immediately, as soon as
I have said good-by to the Princess. It is a final good-by. After to-
night I shall never see her again.'

"'Do you mean that?' Arthur cried.

"'Yes,' Chetney answered. 'When I returned to London I had no
intention of seeking her again, and I am here only through a
mistake.' He then told Arthur that he had separated from the Princess
even before he went to Central Africa, and that, moreover, while at
Cairo on his way south, he had learned certain facts concerning her
life there during the previous season, which made it impossible for
him to ever wish to see her again. Their separation was final and
complete.

"'She deceived me cruelly,' he said; 'I cannot tell you how
cruelly. During the two years when I was trying to obtain my father's
consent to our marriage she was in love with a Russian diplomat.
During all that time he was secretly visiting her here in London, and
her trip to Cairo was only an excuse to meet him there.'

"'Yet you are here with her to-night,' Arthur protested, 'only a
few hours after your return.'

"'That is easily explained,' Chetney answered. 'As I finished
dinner to-night at the hotel, I received a note from her from this
address. In it she said she had just learned of my arrival, and begged
me to come to her at once. She wrote that she was in great and present
trouble, dying of an incurable illness, and without friends or money.
She begged me, for the sake of old times, to come to her assistance.
During the last two years in the jungle all my former feeling for
Zichy has utterly passed away, but no one could have dismissed the
appeal she made in that letter. So I came here, and found her, as you
have seen her, quite as beautiful as she ever was, in very good
health, and, from the look of the house, in no need of money.

"'I asked her what she meant by writing me that she was dying in a
garret, and she laughed, and said she had done so because she was
afraid, unless I thought she needed help, I would not try to see her.
That was where we were when you arrived. And now,' Chetney added, 'I
will say good-by to her, and you had better return home. No, you can
trust me, I shall follow you at once. She has no influence over me
now, but I believe, in spite of the way she has used me, that she is,
after her queer fashion, still fond of me, and when she learns that
this good-by is final there may be a scene, and it is not fair to her
that you should be here. So, go home at once, and tell the governor
that I am following you in ten minutes.'

"'That,' said Arthur, 'is the way we parted. I never left him on
more friendly terms. I was happy to see him alive again, I was happy
to think he had returned in time to make up his quarrel with my
father, and I was happy that at last he was shut of that woman. I was
never better pleased with him in my life.' He turned to Inspector
Lyle, who was sitting at the foot of the bed, taking notes of all he
told us.

"'Why, in the name of common-sense,' he cried, 'should I have
chosen that moment, of all others, to send my brother back to the
grave?' For a moment the Inspector did not answer him. I do not know
if any of you gentlemen are acquainted with Inspector Lyle, but if you
are not, I can assure you that he is a very remarkable man. Our firm
often applies to him for aid, and he has never failed us; my father
has the greatest possible respect for him. Where he has the advantage
over the ordinary police-official is in the fact that he possesses
imagination. He imagines himself to be the criminal, imagines how he
would act under the same circumstances, and he imagines to such
purpose that he generally finds the man he wants. I have often told
Lyle that if he had not been a detective he would have made a great
success as a poet or a playwright.

"When Arthur turned on him, Lyle hesitated for a moment, and then
told him exactly what was the case against him,

"'Ever since your brother was reported as having died in Africa,'
he said, 'your lordship has been collecting money on post-obits. Lord
Chetney's arrival, last night, turned them into waste-paper. You were
suddenly in debt for thousands of pounds—for much more than you
could ever possibly pay. No one knew that you and your brother had
met at Madame Zichy's. But you knew that your father was not expected
to outlive the night, and that if your brother were dead also, you
would be saved from complete ruin, and that you would become the
Marquis of Edam.'

"'Oh, that is how you have worked it out, is it?' Arthur cried.
'And for me to become Lord Edam was it necessary that the woman should
die, too?'

"'They will say,' Lyle answered, 'that she was a witness to the
murder—that she would have told.'

"'Then why did I not kill the servant as well?' Arthur said.

"'He was asleep, and saw nothing.'

"'And you believe that?' Arthur demanded.

"'It is not a question of what I believe,' Lyle said, gravely. 'It
is a question for your peers.'

"Before we could stop him, he sprang out of his cot and began
pulling on his clothes. When the nurses tried to hold him down, he
fought with them.

"'Do you think you can keep me here,' he shouted, 'when they are
plotting to hang me? I am going with you to that house!' he cried at
Lyle. 'When you find those bodies I shall be beside you. It is my
right. He is my brother. He has been murdered, and I can tell you who
murdered him. That woman murdered him.'

'She first ruined his life, and now she has killed him. For the
last five years she has been plotting to make herself his wife, and
last night, when he told her he had discovered the truth about the
Russian, and that she would never see him again, she flew into a
passion and stabbed him, and then in terror of the gallows, killed
herself. She murdered him, I tell you, and I promise you that we will
find the knife she used near her—perhaps still in her hand. What
will you say to that?'

"Lyle turned his head away and stared down at the floor. 'I might
say,' he answered, 'that you placed it there.'

"Arthur gave a cry of anger and sprang at him, and then pitched
forward into his arms. The blood was running from the cut under the
bandage, and he had fainted. Lyle carried him back to the bed again,
and we left him with the police and the doctors, and drove at once to
the address he had given us. We found the house not three minutes'
walk from St. George's Hospital. It stands in Trevor Terrace, that
little row of houses set back from Knightsbridge, with one end in
Hill Street.

"As we left the hospital, Lyle had said to me, 'You must not blame
me for treating him as I did. All is fair in this work, and if by
angering that boy I could have made him commit himself, I was right
in trying to do so; though, I assure you, no one would be better
pleased than myself if I could prove his theory to be correct. But we
cannot tell. Everything depends upon what we see for ourselves within
the next few minutes.'

"When we reached the house, Lyle broke open the fastenings of one
of the windows on the ground-floor, and, hidden by the trees in the
garden, we scrambled in. We found ourselves in the reception-room,
which was the first room on the right of the hall. The gas was still
burning behind the colored glass and red, silk shades, and when the
daylight streamed in after us it gave the hall a hideously dissipated
look, like the foyer of a theatre at a matinee, or the entrance to an
all-day gambling-hall. The house was oppressively silent, and,
because we knew why it was so silent, we spoke in whispers. When Lyle
turned the handle of the drawing-room door, I felt as though someone
had put his hand upon my throat. But I followed, close at his
shoulder, and saw, in the subdued light of many-tinted lamps, the
body of Chetney at the foot of the divan, just as Lieutenant Sears
had described it. In the drawing-room we found the body of the
Princess Zichy, her arms thrown out, and the blood from her heart
frozen in a tiny line across her bare shoulder. But neither of us,
although we searched the floor on our hands and knees, could find the
weapon which had killed her.

"'For Arthur's sake,' I said, 'I would have given a thousand pounds
if we had found the knife in her hand, as he said we would.'

"'That we have not found it there,' Lyle answered, 'is to my mind
the strongest proof that he is telling the truth, that he left the
house before the murder took place. He is not a fool, and had he
stabbed his brother and this woman, he would have seen that by placing
the knife near her he could help to make it appear as if she had
killed Chetney and then committed suicide. Besides, Lord Arthur
insisted that the evidence in his behalf would be our finding the
knife here. He would not have urged that if he knew we would NOT find
it, if he knew he himself had carried it away. This is no suicide. A
suicide does not rise and hide the weapon with which he kills himself,
and then lie down again. No, this has been a double murder, and we
must look outside of the house for the murderer.'

"While he was speaking, Lyle and I had been searching every corner,
studying the details of each room. I was so afraid that, without
telling me, he would make some deductions prejudicial to Arthur, that
I never left his side. I was determined to see everything that he
saw, and, if possible, to prevent his interpreting it in the wrong
way. He finally finished his examination, and we sat down together in
the drawing-room, and he took out his note-book and read aloud all
that Mr. Sears had told him of the murder and what we had just
learned from Arthur. We compared the two accounts, word for word, and
weighed statement with statement, but I could not determine, from
anything Lyle said, which of the two versions he had decided to
believe.

"'We are trying to build a house of blocks,' he exclaimed, 'with
half of the blocks missing. We have been considering two theories,' he
went on: 'one that Lord Arthur is responsible for both murders, and
the other that the dead woman in there is responsible for one of
them, and has committed suicide; but, until the Russian servant is
ready to talk, I shall refuse to believe in the guilt of either.'

"'What can you prove by him?' I asked. 'He was drunk and asleep. He
saw nothing.'

"Lyle hesitated, and then, as though he had made up his mind to be
quite frank with me, spoke freely.

"'I do not know that he was either drunk or asleep,' he answered.
'Lieutenant Sears describes him as a stupid boor. I am not satisfied
that he is not a clever actor. What was his position in this house?
What was his real duty here? Suppose it was not to guard this woman,
but to watch her. Let us imagine that it was not the woman he served,
but a master, and see where that leads us. For this house has a
master, a mysterious, absentee landlord, who lives in St. Petersburg,
the unknown Russian who came between Chetney and Zichy, and because
of whom Chetney left her. He is the man who bought this house for
Madame Zichy, who sent these rugs and curtains from St. Petersburg to
furnish it for her after his own tastes, and, I believe, it was he
also who placed the Russian servant here, ostensibly to serve the
Princess, but in reality to spy upon her. At Scotland Yard we do not
know who this gentleman is; the Russian police confess to equal
ignorance concerning him. When Lord Chetney went to Africa, Madame
Zichy lived in St. Petersburg; but there her receptions and dinners
were so crowded with members of the nobility and of the army and
diplomats, that, among so many visitors, the police could not learn
which was the one for whom she most greatly cared.'

"Lyle pointed at the modern French paintings and the heavy, silk
rugs which hung upon the walls.

"'The unknown is a man of taste and of some fortune,' he said, 'not
the sort of man to send a stupid peasant to guard the woman he loves.
So I am not content to believe, with Mr. Sears, that the servant is a
boor. I believe him, instead, to be a very clever ruffian. I believe
him to be the protector of his master's honor, or, let us say, of his
master's property, whether that property be silver plate or the woman
his master loves. Last night, after Lord Arthur had gone away, the
servant was left alone in this house with Lord Chetney and Madame
Zichy. From where he sat in the hall, he could hear Lord Chetney
bidding her farewell; for, if my idea of him is correct, he
understands English quite as well as you or I. Let us imagine that he
heard her entreating Chetney not to leave her, reminding him of his
former wish to marry her, and let us suppose that he hears Chetney
denounce her, and tell her that at Cairo he has learned of this
Russian admirer—the servant's master. He hears the woman declare
that she has had no admirer but himself, that this unknown Russian
was, and is, nothing to her, that there is no man she loves but him,
and that she cannot live, knowing that he is alive, without his love.
Suppose Chetney believed her, suppose his former infatuation for her
returned, and that, in a moment of weakness, he forgave her and took
her in his arms. That is the moment the Russian master has feared. It
is to guard against it that he has placed his watch-dog over the
Princess, and how do we know but that, when the moment came, the
watch-dog served his master, as he saw his duty, and killed them
both? What do you think?' Lyle demanded. 'Would not that explain both
murders?'

"I was only too willing to hear any theory which pointed to anyone
else as the criminal than Arthur, but Lyle's explanation was too
utterly fantastic. I told him that he certainly showed imagination,
but that he could not hang a man for what he imagined he had done.

"'No,' Lyle answered, 'but I can frighten him by telling him what I
think he has done, and now when I again question the Russian servant
I will make it quite clear to him that I believe he is the murderer.
I think that will open his mouth. A man will at least talk to defend
himself. Come,' he said, 'we must return at once to Scotland Yard and
see him. There is nothing more to do here.'

"He arose, and I followed him into the hall, and in another minute
we would have been on our way to Scotland Yard. But just as he opened
the street-door a postman halted at the gate of the garden, and began
fumbling with the latch.

"Lyle stopped, with an exclamation of chagrin.

"'How stupid of me!' he exclaimed. He turned quickly and pointed to
a narrow slit cut in the brass plate of the front door. 'The house has
a private letter-box,' he said, 'and I had not thought to look in it!
If we had gone out as we came in, by the window, I would never have
seen it. The moment I entered the house I should have thought of
securing the letters which came this morning. I have been grossly
careless.' He stepped back into the hall and pulled at the lid of the
letter-box, which hung on the inside of the door, but it was tightly
locked. At the same moment the postman came up the steps holding a
letter. Without a word, Lyle took it from his hand and began to
examine it. It was addressed to the Princess Zichy, and on the back
of the envelope was the name of a West End dressmaker.

"'That is of no use to me,' Lyle said. He took out his card and
showed it to the postman. 'I am Inspector Lyle from Scotland Yard,'
he said. 'The people in this house are under arrest. Everything it
contains is now in my keeping. Did you deliver any other letters here
this morning?'

"The man looked frightened, but answered, promptly, that he was now
upon his third round. He had made one postal delivery at seven that
morning and another at eleven.

"'How many letters did you leave here?' Lyle asked.

"'About six altogether,' the man answered.

"'Did you put them through the door into the letter-box?'

"The postman said, 'Yes, I always slip them into the box, and ring
and go away. The servants collect them from the inside.'

"'Have you noticed if any of the letters you leave here bear a
Russian postage-stamp?' Lyle asked.

"'The man answered, 'Oh, yes, sir, a great many.'

"'From the same person, would you say?'

"'The writing seems to be the same,' the man answered. 'They come
regularly about once a week—one of those I delivered this morning
had a Russian postmark.'

"'That will do,' said Lyle, eagerly. 'Thank you, thank you very
much.'

"He ran back into the hall, and, pulling out his penknife, began to
pick at the lock of the letter-box.

"'I have been supremely careless,' he said, in great excitement.
'Twice before when people I wanted had flown from a house I have been
able to follow them by putting a guard over their mailbox. These
letters, which arrive regularly every week from Russia in the same
handwriting, they can come but from one person. At least, we shall
now know the name of the master of this house. Undoubtedly, it is one
of his letters that the man placed here this morning. We may make a
most important discovery.'

"As he was talking he was picking at the lock with his knife, but
he was so impatient to reach the letters that he pressed too heavily
on the blade and it broke in his hand. I took a step backward and
drove my heel into the lock, and burst it open. The lid flew back, and
we pressed forward, and each ran his hand down into the letter-box.
For a moment we were both too startled to move. The box was empty.

"I do not know how long we stood, staring stupidly at each other,
but it was Lyle who was the first to recover. He seized me by the arm
and pointed excitedly into the empty box.

"'Do you appreciate what that means?' he cried. 'It means that
someone has been here ahead of us. Someone has entered this house not
three hours before we came, since eleven o'clock this morning.'

"'It was the Russian servant!' I exclaimed.

"'The Russian servant has been under arrest at Scotland Yard,' Lyle
cried. 'He could not have taken the letters. Lord Arthur has been in
his cot at the hospital. That is his alibi. There is someone else,
someone we do not suspect. and that someone is the murderer. He came
back here either to obtain those letters because he knew they would
convict him, or to remove something he had left here at the time of
the murder, something incriminating—the weapon, perhaps, or some
personal article; a cigarette-case, a handkerchief with his name upon
it, or a pair of gloves. Whatever it was, it must have been damning
evidence against him to have made him take so desperate a chance.'

"'How do we know,' I whispered, 'that he is not hidden here now?'

"'No, I'll swear he is not,' Lyle answered. 'I may have bungled in
some things, but I have searched this house thoroughly.
Nevertheless,' he added, 'we must go over it again, from the cellar
to the roof. We have the real clew now, and we must forget the others
and work only it.' As he spoke he began again to search the drawing-
room, turning over even the books on the tables and the music on the
piano.

"'Whoever the man is,' he said, over his shoulder, 'we know that he
has a key to the front door and a key to the letter-box. That shows
us he is either an inmate of the house or that he comes here when he
wishes. The Russian says that he was the only servant in the house.
Certainly, we have found no evidence to show that any other servant
slept here. There could be but one other person who would possess a
key to the house and the letter-box—and he lives in St. Petersburg.
At the time of the murder he was two thousand miles away.' Lyle
interrupted himself, suddenly, with a sharp cry, and turned upon me,
with his eyes flashing. 'But was he?' he cried. 'Was he? How do we
know that last night he was not in London, in this very house when
Zichy and Chetney met?'

"He stood, staring at me without seeing me, muttering, and arguing
with himself.

"'Don't speak to me,' he cried, as I ventured to interrupt him. 'I
can see it now. It is all plain. It was not the servant, but his
master, the Russian himself, and it was he who came back for the
letters! He came back for them because he knew they would convict
him. We must find them. We must have those letters. If we find the
one with the Russian postmark, we shall have found the murderer.' He
spoke like a madman, and as he spoke he ran around the room, with one
hand held out in front of him as you have seen a mind-reader at a
theatre seeking for something hidden in the stalls. He pulled the old
letters from the writing-desk, and ran them over as swiftly as a
gambler deals out cards; he dropped on his knees before the fireplace
and dragged out the dead coals with his bare fingers, and then, with
a low, worried cry, like a hound on a scent, he ran back to the
waste-paper basket and, lifting the papers from it, shook them out
upon the floor. Instantly, he gave a shout of triumph, and,
separating a number of torn pieces from the others, held them up
before me.

"'Look!' he cried. 'Do you see? Here are five letters, torn across
in two places. The Russian did not stop to read them, for, as you see,
he has left them still sealed. I have been wrong. He did not return
for the letters. He could not have known their value. He must have
returned for some other reason, and, as he was leaving, saw the
letter-box, and, taking out the letters, held them together—so—and
tore them twice across, and then, as the fire had gone out, tossed
them into this basket. Look!' he cried, 'here in the upper corner of
this piece is a Russian stamp. This is his own letter—unopened!'

"We examined the Russian stamp and found it had been cancelled in
St. Petersburg four days ago. The back of the envelope bore the
postmark of the branch-station in upper Sloane Street, and was dated
this morning. The envelope was of official, blue paper, and we had no
difficulty in finding the other two parts of it. We drew the torn
pieces of the letter from them and joined them together, side by
side. There were but two lines of writing, and this was the message:
'I leave Petersburg on the night-train, and I shall see you at Trevor
Terrace, after dinner, Monday evening.'

"'That was last night!' Lyle cried. 'He arrived twelve hours ahead
of his letter—but it came in time—it came in time to hang him!'"

The Baronet struck the table with his hand.

"The name!" he demanded. "How was it signed? What was the man's
name?"

The young Solicitor rose to his feet and, leaning forward,
stretched out his arm. "There was no name," he cried. "The letter was
signed with only two initials. But engraved at the top of the sheet
was the man's address. That address was 'THE AMERICAN EMBASSY, ST.
PETERSBURG, BUREAU OF THE NAVAL ATTACHE,' and the initials," he
shouted, his voice rising into an exultant and bitter cry, "were
those of the gentleman who sits opposite who told us that he was the
first to find the murdered bodies, the Naval Attache to Russia,
Lieutenant Sears!"

A strained and awful hush followed the Solicitor's words, which
seemed to vibrate like a twanging bowstring that had just hurled its
bolt. Sir Andrew, pale and staring, drew away, with an exclamation of
repulsion. His eyes were fastened upon the Naval Attache with
fascinated horror. But the American emitted a sigh of great content,
and sank, comfortably, into the arms of his chair. He clapped his
hands, softly, together.

"Capital!" he murmured. "I give you my word I never guessed what
you were driving at. You fooled ME, I'll be hanged if you didn't—you
certainly fooled me."

The man with the pearl stud leaned forward, with a nervous gesture.
"Hush! be careful!" he whispered. But at that instant, for the third
time, a servant, hastening through the room, handed him a piece of
paper which he scanned eagerly. The message on the paper read, "The
light over the Commons is out. The House has risen."

The man with the black pearl gave a mighty shout, and tossed the
paper from him upon the table.

"Hurrah!" he cried. "The House is up! We've won!" He caught up his
glass, and slapped the Naval Attache, violently, upon the shoulder.
He nodded joyously at him, at the Solicitor, and at the Queen's
Messenger. "Gentlemen, to you!" he cried; "my thanks and my
congratulations!" He drank deep from the glass, and breathed forth a
long sigh of satisfaction and relief.

"But I say," protested the Queen's Messenger, shaking his finger,
violently, at the Solicitor, "that story won't do. You didn't play
fair—and—and you talked so fast I couldn't make out what it was all
about. I'll bet you that evidence wouldn't hold in a court of law—
you couldn't hang a cat on such evidence. Your story is condemned
tommy-rot. Now, my story might have happened, my story bore the mark-
-"

In the joy of creation, the story-tellers had forgotten their
audience, until a sudden exclamation from Sir Andrew caused them to
turn, guiltily, toward him. His face was knit with lines of anger,
doubt, and amazement.

"What does this mean?" he cried. "Is this a jest, or are you mad?
If you know this man is a murderer, why is he at large? Is this a game
you have been playing? Explain yourselves at once. What does it
mean?"

The American, with first a glance at the others, rose and bowed,
courteously.

"I am not a murderer, Sir Andrew, believe me," he said; "you need
not be alarmed. As a matter of fact, at this moment I am much more
afraid of you than you could possibly be of me. I beg you, please to
be indulgent. I assure you, we meant no disrespect. We have been
matching stories, that is all, pretending that we are people we are
not, endeavoring to entertain you with better detective-tales than,
for instance, the last one you read, 'The Great Rand Robbery.'"

The Baronet brushed his hand, nervously, across his forehead.

"Do you mean to tell me," he exclaimed, "that none of this has
happened? That Lord Chetney is not dead, that his Solicitor did not
find a letter of yours, written from your post in Petersburg, and
that just now, when he charged you with murder, he was in jest?"

"I am really very sorry," said the American, "but you see, sir, he
could not have found a letter written by me in St. Petersburg because
I have never been in Petersburg. Until this week, I have never been
outside of my own country. I am not a naval officer. I am a writer of
short stories. And to-night, when this gentleman told me that you
were fond of detective-stories, I thought it would be amusing to tell
you one of my own—one I had just mapped out this afternoon."

"But Lord Chetney IS a real person," interrupted the Baronet, "and
he did go to Africa two years ago, and he was supposed to have died
there, and his brother, Lord Arthur, has been the heir. And yesterday
Chetney did return. I read it in the papers."

"So did I," assented the American, soothingly; "and it struck me as
being a very good plot for a story. I mean his unexpected return from
the dead, and the probable disappointment of the younger brother. So
I decided that the younger brother had better murder the older one.
The Princess Zichy I invented out of a clear sky. The fog I did not
have to invent. Since last night I know all that there is to know
about a London fog. I was lost in one for three hours."

The Baronet turned, grimly, upon the Queen's Messenger.

"But this gentleman," he protested, "he is not a writer of short
stories; he is a member of the Foreign Office. I have often seen him
in Whitehall, and, according to him, the Princess Zichy is not an
invention. He says she is very well known, that she tried to rob
him."

The servant of the Foreign Office looked, unhappily, at the Cabinet
Minister, and puffed, nervously, on his cigar.

"It's true, Sir Andrew, that I am a Queen's Messenger," he said,
appealingly, "and a Russian woman once did try to rob a Queen's
Messenger in a railway carriage—only it did not happen to me, but to
a pal of mine. The only Russian princess I ever knew called herself
Zabrisky. You may have seen her. She used to do a dive from the roof
of the Aquarium."

Sir Andrew, with a snort of indignation, fronted the young
Solicitor.

"And I suppose yours was a cock-and-bull story, too," he said. "Of
course, it must have been, since Lord Chetney is not dead. But don't
tell me," he protested, "that you are not Chudleigh's son either."

"I'm sorry," said the youngest member, smiling, in some
embarrassment, "but my name is not Chudleigh. I assure you, though,
that I know the family very well, and that I am on very good terms
with them."

"You should be!" exclaimed the Baronet; "and, judging from the
liberties you take with the Chetneys, you had better be on very good
terms with them, too."

The young man leaned back and glanced toward the servants at the
far end of the room.

"It has been so long since I have been in the Club," he said, "that
I doubt if even the waiters remember me. Perhaps Joseph may," he
added. "Joseph!" he called, and at the word a servant stepped briskly
forward.

The young man pointed to the stuffed head of a great lion which was
suspended above the fireplace.

"Joseph," he said, "I want you to tell these gentlemen who shot
that lion. Who presented it to the Grill?"

Joseph, unused to acting as master of ceremonies to members of the
Club, shifted, nervously, from one foot to the other.

"Why, you—you did," he stammered.

"Of course I did!" exclaimed the young man. "I mean, what is the
name of the man who shot it? Tell the gentlemen who I am. They
wouldn't believe me."

"Who you are, my lord?" said Joseph. "You are Lord Edam's son, the
Earl of Chetney."

"You must admit," said Lord Chetney, when the noise had died away,
"that I couldn't remain dead while my little brother was accused of
murder. I had to do something. Family pride demanded it. Now, Arthur,
as the younger brother, can't afford to be squeamish, but,
personally, I should hate to have a brother of mine hanged for
murder."

"You certainly showed no scruples against hanging me," said the
American, "but, in the face of your evidence, I admit my guilt, and I
sentence myself to pay the full penalty of the law as we are made to
pay it in my own country. The order of this court is," he announced,
"that Joseph shall bring me a wine-card, and that I sign it for five
bottles of the Club's best champagne."

"Oh, no!" protested the man with the pearl stud, "it is not for YOU
to sign it. In my opinion, it is Sir Andrew who should pay the costs.
It is time you knew," he said, turning to that gentleman, "that,
unconsciously, you have been the victim of what I may call a
patriotic conspiracy. These stories have had a more serious purpose
than merely to amuse. They have been told with the worthy object of
detaining you from the House of Commons. I must explain to you that,
all through this evening, I have had a servant waiting in Trafalgar
Square with instructions to bring me word as soon as the light over
the House of Commons had ceased to burn. The light is now out, and
the object for which we plotted is attained."

The Baronet glanced, keenly, at the man with the black pearl, and
then, quickly, at his watch. The smile disappeared from his lips, and
his face was set in stern and forbidding lines.

"And may I know," he asked, icily, "what was the object of your
plot?"

"A most worthy one," the other retorted. "Our object was to keep
you from advocating the expenditure of many millions of the people's
money upon more battle-ships. In a word, we have been working
together to prevent you from passing the Navy Increase Bill."

"My dear sir!" he cried, "you should spend more time at the House
and less at your Club. The Navy Bill was brought up on its third
reading at eight o'clock this evening. I spoke for three hours in its
favor. My only reason for wishing to return again to the House
to-night was to sup on the terrace with my old friend, Admiral Simons;
for my work at the House was completed five hours ago, when the Navy
Increase Bill was passed by an overwhelming majority."

The Baronet rose and bowed. "I have to thank you, sir," he said,
"for a most interesting evening."

The American shoved the wine-card which Joseph had given him toward
the gentleman with the black pearl.